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On a weekday shopping trip to the only real grocery store for 30 miles, Ann Neagle paused before a bag of Red Delicious apples, $7 for a dozen, plus a new discount — the Navajo Nation lifted the 5% sales tax on fresh fruits and vegetables. That's the carrot in the tribe's attempt to curb rampant obesity, diabetes and heart disease. Next comes the stick: A 2% tax on junk food. That tax, the first of its kind nationwide, will hit one of the most economically depressed areas in the country, where more than 40% of people are unemployed. Neagle is worried. "Less money for fruits is nice, but it doesn't even out," she said. "For people on a fixed income,...

Related "U.S. Department of Agriculture" Articles

On a weekday shopping trip to the only real grocery store for 30 miles, Ann Neagle paused before a bag of Red Delicious apples, $7 for a dozen, plus a new discount — the Navajo Nation lifted the 5% sales tax on fresh fruits and vegetables.
That's the...

There are a few things we can say for sure about milk: It is a concentrated source of calcium. It also contains protein and other nutrients. And it elicits strong opinions, even among scientists who study it, about how much we need. With recent studies...

A wild animal is never more dangerous than when it is cornered. And Big Sugar is lashing out with all the sweet venom it can muster in response to the latest attacks on the iniquities of the American diet. These attacks are now seemingly coming from all...

A simple instrument with a weight and a pulley confirmed what hydrologist Michelle Sneed had suspected after seeing more and more dirt vanish from the base of her equipment each time she returned to her research site last summer. The tawny San Joaquin...

There’s good news for shoppers in the latest Consumer Price Index update from the Department of Agriculture, released last week. Food prices in general should show little to no increase over last year. But there are a couple of exceptions and a couple...

With national headlines touting the message that low-fat diets are out and high-fat diets are in, people who once shunned butter are slathering it on toast, melting it in sautés and even plopping it into their coffee. And though the media has...

Matt Walton's caramel corn was a hit. Gourmet shops were clamoring for more, hooked on a recipe handed down by his grandmother.
But Walton hit a wall. He couldn't find a commercial kitchen to expand production.
His company was too big for his home,...

The job of keeping our food wholesome has become more difficult as food itself has become more complicated. Because processed foods include ingredients from many sources, it is hard to trace the origin of pathogens. A package of ground beef, for instance,...

— Come February, the owners of Farmstead Flowers begin nurturing seedlings and preparing three acres for their cash crop reaped from April through October — cut flowers. Megan Hird and her husband founded their rural southeast Nebraska business in 2012...

I ran into a farmer I know in December. “I'm not going to make my operating loan in February,” he told me, meaning he might lose his farm to foreclosure. A grower of organic vegetables for 50 of the top restaurants in farm-food-obsessed Portland, Ore., he...

Wolfgang Puck remembers the time he brought his butcher to Cannes. It was 1976, and the chef was catering an opening night dinner for the film festival. He decided he needed Harvey Gussman — and his beef.
"He was like a shepherd, bringing the meat...

Although its chances of becoming law seem unlikely at best, Friday's vote in the Kentucky House to endorse a smoking ban counted as a notable moment in a state still steeped in tobacco culture.
The Kentucky House endorsed a statewide smoking ban in...

It's easy to be dazzled by all the spectacular citrus in the markets this time of year: blood and Cara Cara oranges, Meyer lemons, a dozen kinds of mandarins, finger limes smaller than your pinkie and Big Wong pummelos the size of your head.
But take a...

California Atty. Gen. Kamala D. Harris said Wednesday she would appeal last month’s decision by a federal judge to overturn the state’s ban on foie gras.
The ban was lifted Jan. 7 after U.S. District Judge Stephen V. Wilson ruled that the law was...

Coca-Cola is coming out with premium milk that has more protein and less sugar than regular milk. And it's betting people will pay twice as much for it.
The national rollout of Fairlife over the next several weeks marks Coke's entry into the milk case in...

After two alligators were found this week in the San Fernando Valley, it makes one wonder just how many alligators and exotic animals live in L.A.?
Animal control officers with the Los Angeles Animal Services Department on Monday found an 8-foot...

Avian flu has been detected among a flock of turkeys at a Central Valley ranch operated by Foster Farms, authorities said.
The influenza virus was found at one of the company's facilities in Stanislaus County. In a statement, the company said no products...

Just as the U.S. Department of Agriculture’s Food Safety and Inspection Service has announced plans to crack down on poultry industry food-safety lapses, a West Covina woman is suing Foster Farms, saying she was sickened from eating the company’s chicken.

Residents of Van Nuys discovered this month that an alligator named Jaxson had been living in a neighbor's backyard for the last 37 years.
But it is far from the only story of exotic pets living among us in Southern California. Over the years,...